Crimson Star Knight
by Everflames
Summary: Set years before the beginning of the Thousand Blood War and the completion of the vanguard known as the Star Knights. This is a tale focused on one of their members. A life before war. [Based in Daniel Affaro's Thousand Year Blood War universe & featuring characters from Tekking101's Sternritter contest.]
1. Firstborn

_**Preface** **:**_

 **I do not own bleach. All characters are owned by their respective creators. The alternate universe this story takes place in is owned by Daniel Affaro. This story chronologically takes place 6 to 10 years before the start of Daniel Affaro's story. If you want to familiarize yourself with some of the characters beforehand or see events that take place after this story I would highly recommend reading his story first.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1: Firstborn**_

* * *

 _ **-The** **Silbern** **, 1997, Yhwach's Throne Room-**_

"Rise," echoed Yhwach's voice throughout the vast throne room. "You have partook of my blood."

The young red-haired woman in front of Yhwach steadily rose up to her feet, staring directly in front of herself, purposefully avoiding looking directly into the eyes of the man in front of her.

"The ritual is complete," Yhwach continued, slowly lifting his right hand placing it on the woman's shoulder "Now, turn, and meet your fellows."

The woman calmly began to turn around, doing so causing Yhwach's hand to leave her shoulder. She stared down a long ivory coloured staircase which went on forever and seemed to hold the weight of the entire world in its grasp. She began to focus on the figures standing at the bottom of the stair case.

Lenora Poultery, Grand Mistress of the Soldat, was standing directly right of Yhwach. _Some audience this turned out to_ _be_ , she thought to herself. _Not including the newcomer, there are twenty-three of us, and including myself, only three even bothered to show up. Three! What an utter disgrace!_ Lenora's face started to become noticeably contorted due to her rage.

The red-haired woman began walking down the staircase. It felt like an eternity in her mind, intrusive thoughts overpowering rational ones in a haze of both serenity and agitation.

Finally reaching the bottom of the staircase she looked to her right slightly and noticed a completely obscured, large form of a man shrouded in a white cloak leaning against one of the tall columns which were spread throughout the throne room.

"Another kid? We already have one of those. Go home." it said, its voice sounded male and extremely deep whilst completely monotone at the same time.

"Thanks for the warm welcome," she nodded at the figure "I'm going to assume you're the humanitarian of the Star Knights?" she said as sarcastically as she could muster.

The form turned its head to look at her while forwarding itself from its leaning position and began walking toward the exit of the throne room.

"Just go home kid." it grunted under its breath.

 _Sixteen, you ignoramus._ she began thinking to herself, _A_ _t least learn your terminology. I'm hardly a kid._

Before she could take another step forward she snapped her eyes back in front of her as another of her fellows approached. He was slightly above average height with ashen-colored hair and dark brown eyes to match her own.

"You'll have to excuse that one," he said, his eyes focused on the figure about to exit the throne room. "No manners at all I'm afraid."

He turned his face to the red-haired woman in front of him.

"Sylvanus," he stated matter of factly, with a hint of calmness to his voice.

He extended his right hand to the red-haired woman.

Looking down at Sylvanus' hand and then back up at his face, she extended her hand to shake his.

"Nina," she replied.

Sylvanus had always considered himself a good judge of character. He was all too well aware of how many monsters made up the ranks of the Sternritter. He only attended these ceremonies to gauge for himself the new Star Knights.

He continued to stare at Nina during their handshake. _At first glance her face betrays nothing._ He began internalising, _But her eyes, I can see it. An unfathomable amount of mercy and guilt reside within..._

"Are you okay?" Nina asked, interrupting Sylvanus' train of thought and releasing his hand."You look.. upset?"

"No, it's nothing," he answered, crossing his arms across his chest. "The pleasure is mine."

 _This is the only way I know to be sure for certain_ He thought to himself.

"Tell me, have you ever heard of the Fünften Feld before?" he asked.

"The Fifth Field," she replied. "I've heard stories about it from.."

She paused unexpectedly to regather her thoughts and rethink her next words.

"The people in the village where I grew up," she finally answered "I've never been there myself. I'm not sure if it even exists."

"Oh it exists." Sylvanus confirmed.

"The reishi within the Funft Feld is completely different to anywhere else you'll find in this world." Sylvanus began explaining. Nina appeared to be totally engrossed by his words.

"It makes training extremely efficient, albeit with one downside." he continued.

Nina was completely enthralled by her new comrades explanation of this place she'd only ever heard about and thought was a myth. Her eyes began widening slightly with a dainty smile on her face.

"Can you take me there?!" she excitedly asked, completely ignoring the final part of Sylvanus' explanation.

"Well that's the plan," he replied, also finding himself with a slight smile on his face due to her abrupt reaction. "Shall we go?"

Nina recomposed herself after noticing his smile. She gave a single nod to her comrade.

They both began making their way to the exit of the Throne room side by side. Nina found herself caught in a whirlwind of memories she did not want to remember.

 _Why am I thinking about **him** at a time like this?_

* * *

 _ **-World of the Living, Great Britain, 1993, Location Unknown-**_

The moon loomed over the vast expanse of a forest. Densely packed trees illuminated in its blinding light. Faint rustling noises could be heard as two figures began moving around inside.

"Cain, where are we going?" Nina asked, her black mantle catching on hedges as they were walking.

"What's the matter, don't trust me? You're a great little sister aren't you." he replied.

"If it's more training, can't we wait until morning?" she asked, intentionally ignoring her brothers teasing.

Cain ignored her question and came to an abrupt stop. "We're here"

Nina stopped next to her brother and observed her surroundings. They were both standing in front of an immensely sized lake surrounded by trees in the middle of the forest.

"It's looks exactly the same as everywhere else, except for the lake." she said while looking up at her brother with a slightly annoyed face.

Cain smiled slightly and closed his eyes whilst taking off his hood, revealing his piercing red hair to match his sisters.

"That's your problem," he explained "Don't rely on your eyes. Feel the reishi in the air.. around the trees, the lake, the rocks, the leaves. Even you and I."

Nina raised her left hand, her quincy cross falling slightly below her wrist.

Small sparks of ambient reishi began congregating around her quincy cross and near-instantaneously formed a small and sleek bow.

"You're right," she said, a slight grin on her face and sounding pleasantly pleased with herself, "I've not been able to form my bow that quickly before."

"Now then, time for a bit of target practice." Cain said, materializing his own bow in his right hand. It also had a sleek design, noticeably smaller with a metallic look in contrast to the ambient blue reishi look of Nina's bow.

Nina's grin quickly dissipated as she stared for a moment at her brothers bow and then at her own quincy cross dangling from her left wrist.

"When will I be able to form my bow without my cross?" she asked.

"When you have refined control over the reishi around you" he answered, still with a slight smile on his face.

His eyes still closed, Cain lifted his bow hand and pointed it across the lake, his left hand staying in his mantles pocket.

"What are you aiming at?" Nina questioned.

"I came here earlier this morning," he answered "I placed four torches on trees at the other end of the lake. If you look closely you can see their flames."

Nina began squinting her eyes and she could see four orange shaped dots on the other side of the lake.

"I see them!" she exclaimed "But doesn't this seem a bit.. much? I've never even shot my bow before. It's taken over a week for me to even form it."

Cain continued to hold his aim position. Without a change to his posture his bow expelled a single heilig pfeil.

The arrow travelled gracefully across the lake until eventually it became a blue dot to the naked eye.

Nina began to squint her eyes again to see if the arrow hit its mark.

She noticed that all four of the orange dots across the lake were gone.

"How did you do that?" she asked, looking at her brother with a perplexed face.

Cain de-materialized his bow and opened his eyes to look at Nina. His smile growing even wider.

 _A week?_ Cain thought to himself _It took me months to materialize my bow._

"Magic!" he shouted, while moving to a tree behind them both and leaning his back against it, all the time maintaining his smile.

Nina's eyes followed him. Her expression changed from perplexed to exasperated.

"Stupid.." she said, rolling her eyes whilst lifting her bow hand up and turning herself so she was looking across the lake.

Cain continued leaning against the tree, his arms crossed. His expression had changed from his usual cheeriness to unnervingly stoic. He watched his sister with great purpose as she readied her aim.

 _Aim for the heavens dear sister. For I fear I will not be here for much longer.._

* * *

 **AN: Hope you've enjoyed reading what I've managed to put together so far. Constructive criticism and feedback is really appreciated as this is my first time writing any type of fanfiction.**


	2. The Betrayer

_**AN: Apologies for the long delay. Busy with work.**_

 _ **All scenes henceforth are set in 1993 unless stated otherwise. Enjoy.**_

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2: The Betrayer**_

* * *

 _ **-The Silbern, Throne Room-**_

"My beloved schutzstaffel," Yhwach exclaimed as he rose from his throne, "It's good that you are here."

Kneeling before Yhwach were three figures shrouded in the standard Star Knight mantle which held the quincy zeichen on its back.

All three of the figures rose to their feet. Two of them lowered their hoods revealing their faces while the third remained hidden under their kasa.

"You all know why I have summoned you here." Yhwach continued, his expression unchanging and his voice unyielding.

All three of the figures stood in silence for a few moments until one of them finally took a single step forward. A young man with striking black hair, glasses and piercing green eyes.

"Your Majesty, surely he must have left for a reason," the man said "He would never betra-"

"Joseph," Yhwach interrupted "I believe your trust to be misplaced.."

Joseph instinctively stepped back to his previous position and lowered his head slightly.

The man to Joseph's right looked at his comrade. He had blonde hair with a goatee. A tattoo on his face and a vertical scar down his left eye.

"Tch, this is stupid!" The man shouted, turning around and walking down the staircase towards the exit of the throne room.

"Haans?" the figure in the kasa said, without moving at all.

Haans stopped and turned back around to face his comrades and let out a small grin. He lifted his left hand up and placed his right index finger on his left thumb.

"Go." he said, moving his right index finger across to the next finger on his left.

"Find."

"Kill."

"Return."

"Sleep." he finished, ending up with his right index finger on his pinky finger.

He turned around once more and began making his way to the exit of the throne room.

"Your majesty...?" the figure in the kasa said, looking at Yhwach.

"Let him do as he pleases." Yhwach answered.

"Your orders remain the same as his," he continued "You are to apprehend the traitor immediately."

Yhwach stepped back and sat on his throne. Joseph and the figure in the kasa bowed and turned to face the staircase leading towards the exit of the throne room.

"Beraht," Joseph said, looking across at his comrade as they both were walking down the ivory staircase, "Do you think he is a traitor, truly?"

Beraht looked across at Joseph, his face obscured in shadow by his kasa.

"The red hawk has transgressed and strayed from the path," Beraht said, his voice calm and composed "I will ensure justice is not only swift, but painless."

Joseph sighed, half expecting the answer he got.

"Thanks for that" he said, stopping halfway down the staircase and sitting down. He watched as Beraht continued down the staircase and into the great hall until eventually leaving the throne room.

Joseph sat for a few minutes on the staircase, he began looking up at the high ceiling of the throne room with a conflicted look on his face.

 _'What were you thinking, old friend..'_

* * *

 ** _-World of the Living, Great Britain, Location Unknown-_**

Cain and Nina were both still at the forest lake. The moon continued to illuminate the entirety of the lake as well as the surrounding trees.

"Tell me again," Nina huffed loudly, her arms raised with both her hands clenched together guarding her lower face, "Why are we practicing hand-to-hand combat? We're quincy."

"Simple," he replied, raising his hand to indicate for her to take a break, "You can't rely on a single fighting style to win a fight."

"If you were somehow unable to use holy arrows, what would you do then?" he asked.

Nina nodded, "I see your point."

Cain started walked towards a lone tree. "But you can't rely on technique alone. Even in a melee."

"There needs to be power in your punches." he explained.

Nina's eyes followed Cain as he stopped in front of a tree. It stood around 50 feet tall with an extremely bulky trunk.

"We humans are inherently weak creatures, Nina" he said, lifting his right hand while clenching his fist.

"But we can strive to become stronger. Better. That is our greatest strength."

Multiple prominent red veins began appearing on his hand.

He threw his fist forward hitting the tree.

A shockwave followed, causing a large whirlwind to engulf the area but leaving the tree completely unscathed. All the leaves from the nearby trees were ripped off in the whirlwind and began falling around them both.

He turned around to look at Nina. An annoyed expression on her face, she had her arms crossed with her lip slightly pouted.

"What?" he said, "You thought I was going to demolish a tree?" he chuckled.

Ignoring him, Nina began walking back the way they came, deep into the forest.

"I'm tired. Going home." she bluntly stated.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Cain yelled.

As he took a step forward to follow Nina he immediately stopped in place and turned around.

"What?" he said with a troubled look on his face.

Cain realized that the Gate of the Sun located around twenty miles away had just activated.

 _'I guess the old man got sick of waiting..'_ he thought to himself.

 _'No time to wait and see who arrives. I have to act quickly.'_

As he snapped back to the present situation he had realized Nina had put a bit of distance between them. Since she had relatively little training in controlling her own reiatsu he was easily able to pinpoint her location.

 _'Good, she's heading back towards the village...'_

 _'Bad news is that if whoever arrives out of the gate happens to be good at sensing reiatsu they will head straight towards her.'_

 _'Although I'm proficient enough to mask my own reiatsu completely, she's another story.'_

 _'I'll have to draw them towards myself.'_

He propelled himself using hirenkyaku in the complete opposite direction of Nina as fast as he could.

 _'Once I'm at a distance she won't be able to sense my surge in reiatsu, I'll release everything and they will come running.'_

* * *

 ** _-The Silbern, Gate of the Sun, 10 minutes earlier...-_**

Haans stood in front of the Gate of the Sun with a puzzled look on his face. While he knew that all the Schutzstaffel had permission to use it, he never had a need to.

"Hmmm..." he pondered.

 _"..."_

He stood in the same position for at least five minutes with the same look on his face until he finally snapped.

"HOW DO I USE THIS STUPID THING?!" he yelled out in frustration, tilting his head to the side and putting his hands on his head.

"Having a slight bit of trouble there?" A voice from behind him asked.

An elderly man with curly grey hair began walking toward Haans.

"AH?" Haans replied, turning his head to the side, still tilted.

"It is rather a shame that an esteemed member of the Schutzstaffel such as yourself would be ignorant in usage of the gate." the elderly man said.

"Be quiet, Gillaume!" Haans shouted, turning his head back to face the gate. "I'm trying to use the damn gate."

"No doubt." Gillaume replied.

He paused for a minute to continue watching his frustrated comrade. Until finally content that he had suffered enough.

"Would you be open to guidance?" he asked.

"If it will open the stupid gate, then yes!" Haans replied sharply.

"Splendid!" Gilluame exclaimed.

He began walking towards Haans until he was standing beside him.

"So then, where would you like the gate to take you?" Gillaume asked.

"Great!" Haans yelled out, a huge smile on his face "Now then.. I need to go to-"

He stopped short of finishing upon realizing that he actually had no idea where he needed the gate to take him.

"Something the matter?" Gillaume interrupted.

"We need you need to check the last location the gate was set for at a specific time." A voice echoed from behind Gilluame and Haans.

Joseph began making his way towards the two of them.

"Five years ago on May the fourteenth to be specific." he continued.

Haans quickly turned around and pointed at Joseph.

"What he said!" he shouted, still a massive grin on his face.

Joseph began looking around.

 _'Beraht isn't here yet? What's going on?'_ he thought to himself.

Gilluame lifted his hand and placed it on the quincy zeichen engraved onto the gate. A blue hue surrounding his hand emitted as he held it in place.

"That's absolutely fine. I'll have your location set and ready momentarily," he said as the gate began to emit a large amount of reiatsu from the surrounding pillars.

"Prepare yourself."

* * *

 ** _-The Silbern, Yhwach's Quarters-_**

Yhwach stood in front of a large mirror in his extremely large quarters. An all white room with a single chair in the middle, with a wall mirror at the back of the room.

A young female wearing the sternritter uniform entered the room and began making her way toward Yhwach.

"Lenora.." Yhwach's voice echoed, "Report."

Lenora stopped halfway inside the room, still a considerable distance from Yhwach.

"Your majesty," she said, bowing in respect. "I can confirm that both Haans and Joseph have activated the Gate of the Sun. They should have already arrived."

"That is good news." Yhwach replied, his back still turned to Lenora.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"Your majesty.." she said hesitantly, "If I may be so bold, may I ask why you felt the need to send members of the Schutzstaffel to deal with one lone traitor?" she asked.

Yhwach did not answer. The silence went on for almost a minute until an anxious Lenora decided to break it.

"Surely just myself and a squadron of the Soldat would be enough?" she asked, hoping this time to be graced with an answer.

Yhwach continued to stand in place without saying a word.

Lenora turned around as she began to hear footsteps behind her.

Beraht entered the room, his kasa still encasing his face in shadow.

"Beraht..?" Lenora said, obvious confusion in her voice "Weren't you supposed to be-"

"Lenora," Yhwach interjected, stopping her mid sentence.

"Please leave us." he demanded.

Still with a confused look on her face she looked back and forth at Beraht and Yhwach.

"Of course. I will take my leave" she said anxiously.

Once she exited the room, Beraht began walking towards the chair in the center of the room.

Both of them stood in silence for a few minutes until Yhwach turned around to face Beraht.

"You will intervene...?" Beraht asked, as if knowing Yhwach's intentions completely.

"If the need arises." Yhwach replied.

"If that happens then you shall be needed here." he continued.

"As you say, your majesty." Beraht said whilst bowing his head.

* * *

 ** _-World of the Living, Great Britain, Gate of the Sun-_**

The gate was situated in an extremely arid place. Any and all signs of life were non-existent, the only noticeable things being the many mountains surrounding the immediate area.

The Gate began emitting blue sparks of reishi until a door-shaped portal had formed.

Haans and Joseph both stepped out of the portal.

"Dark! Can't see a damn thing!" Hanns shouted at the top of his voice, "Any idea where we are?!"

"None," Joseph answered, "I've been to many gates before. I don't recall ever using this one."

Joseph stepped forward and started observing his surroundings.

"So?!" Haans shouted, "How are we going to find him?!"

"I don't think he would've strayed too far from here. If I extend my senses then I should be able to lock onto his reiatsu signature fairly easily."

Haans looked at Joseph with confusion.

"So.. we don't have to search aimlessly?" he said.

"No," Joseph bluntly replied, closing his eyes. "Now be quiet"

 _'...'_

 _'A village? Around twenty miles to the east..'_ Joseph began thinking to himself, using his keen senses in order to pinpoint the target.

 _'And... there! Unmistakably him, but it feels.. weak. What's going on?'_

 _'Hm? What's this? Another reiatsu heading west at an alarming speed. Extremely powerful. It's heading the complete opposite way of the weaker one. But more importantly, why do they have the same reiatsu signature?'_

Joseph finally opened his eyes with a puzzled look on his face.

"Two Cain's?" Joseph pondered.

"What?" Haans questioned, "What did you find? Tell me so I can hurry this along!"

"There's two individuals, but they both possess the same reiatsu signature as Cain." Joseph explained.

Haans began nodding frantically.

"Then the answer is simple!" he yelled, "We both go to each one separately!"

Joseph knew that was the most idiotic plan ever. However he had considered that it would be disadvantageous for them to fight as a duo due his own schrift. While Going to separate targets would alleviate that, he was unsure if they would even be able to best Cain in one on one combat. The final thing was which reiatsu he would tell Haans to head towards.

 _'If he knows we're here then he's trying to throw us off the trail perhaps? Maybe I should go to the weaker reiatsu.'_ he thought.

"Fine."

"You need to head north of here as fast as you can. The target is around twenty miles away, heading rapidly west from a village to the east. You will intercept him if you head directly north from here." he explained.

"Right-O!" Haans said "And what about you?"

"The other target is near the village. I'll head there now." Joseph answered.

Haans let a huge grin.

"This is going to be mighty interesting!" he yelled as he propelled himself airborne using hirenhyaku, disappearing from Joseph's sight almost immediately.


	3. The Confrontation

_**Chapter 3: The Confrontation**_

* * *

"Finally out of that damn forest. I'm never going back there." Nina said to herself.

Standing on the dirt path next to an open mustard field, she turned around and noticed that Cain was nowhere to be seen.

"Forget him, I'm too tired to wait around." she stated, continuing to walk towards the dimmed lights in the distance.

Unbeknownst to her, an individual with a mission was drawing closer to her.

Joseph was airborne, travelling at extreme speeds towards the village and his target.

 _'I'm almost there.'_ he thought to himself. Still feeling uneasy about the whole situation.

 _'Not sure what I'm going to find... Hopefully answers.'_

He suddenly came to a complete stop in mid-air as he felt the reiatsu of the one he had been pursuing directly below him.

He could vaguely make out small figure walking towards the village. He was too high up to see anything else.

Hesitantly he began descending towards the ground.

* * *

Standing at the peak of a mountain Cain stood, hands in his pockets, waiting firmly. The huge gales of wind unable to break his poise.

He felt Haans' reiatsu drawing closer.

"They aren't even attempting to conceal their presence" he said.

Eventually Haans appeared, bursting through a cloud a distance away from Cain, who still stood on the mountains peak.

Haans looked at the figure on the mountain for a few seconds before cupping his hands over his mouth.

"YO!" he shouted at the top of his voice.

Cain leapt off the mountain edge and instantly appeared in front of Haans.

The two of them stood in front of each other, their eyes locked.

"Haans," Cain nodded.

Haans did not reply, only showing his reciprocation through his trademark grin.

"Another came with you. Who was it?" Cain asked.

Haans started to chuckle under his breath until he eventually began laughing uncontrollably.

"Have I amused you somehow?" Cain asked with an irked look on his face.

Haans eventually stopped laughing, his grin still remaining.

"No.." he said softly "It doesn't matter.." he chuckled slightly.

"Enough standing around!" he yelled.

Cain suddenly was lifted into the air by an unseen force. Haans began laughing at the top of his voice again.

"YOU HAD YOUR GUARD DOWN THE ENTIRE TIME!? WEAK!" he yelled whilst trying to contain his laughter.

"DEATH BY CRUSHING IT IS!" he continued, holding out his right hand and clenching it into a fist shape.

Seemingly unphased by Haans maneuver, Cain looked down at him with an indifferent look on his face.

" **Uneinnehmbare Festung,** " he muttered, still with his hands in his pockets and eyes locked with Haans, "This level of attack will not harm me," he continued.

"And you were a fool to believe I had my guard down." he said while sparks of reishi began emitting around them both.

Haans began looking around frantically, his grin not leaving his face. Eventually he looked back at Cain.

Cain continued glance at him.

 _" **Strömungs Beschleunigung.** "_

Cain suddenly appeared in an unseen flash to Haans' side, readying his left foot to deliver a kick to the side of his face.

Haans could not react and was still looking at where Cain was previously, with the biggest grin still on his face. The thrust of the kick sent him flying down through multiple clouds before smashing into the forest below.

Cain looked down through the gaping holes in the clouds where Haans had fallen.

"Know your place, rabid dog." he said with a noticeable amount of contempt in his voice.

* * *

"I said who are you?!" Nina shouted at the figure standing in front of her.

Joseph had intercepted Nina and blocked her path. He was standing a fair distance from her, in complete silence.

 _"What is going?"_ he thought to himself, _"A young girl is the presence I was sensing when I arrived?"_

 _"Was it a distraction...? No, it can't be, because I still feel like I'm standing in front of **him**."_

Nina instinctively knew that the person in front of her was not an ally and that she had to defend herself.

"Answer me!" Nina yelled again, materializing her bow in her left hand and forming an holy arrow

The hooded figure in front of her did not answer.

Joseph eventually took a single step forward and Nina released the arrow aimed at him. Joseph did not attempt to dodge but continued to move towards her.

The arrow narrowly passed the side of Joseph's head. Seemingly unphased by what had just happened he stopped moving.

"Who... are you?" he asked her, breaking his silence.

Nina tilted her head slightly at his question.

"Idiot! That's what I've been asking you!" she shouted.

Ignoring her response, Joseph suddenly turned around as he had noticed a surge in Haans' reiatsu.

 _"Looks like Haans may have found the actual Cain... although it still doesn't explain this girl."_ he thought to himself.

Turning back around and looking at Nina again, Joseph knew that he had made a slight miscalculation and that he needed to regroup with Haans.

"Sorry for this." he said, suddenly appearing behind Nina and landing a small swift blow to the back of her head.

Unable to react or even register Joseph's movements, her bow dissolved she immediately fell unconscious.

As she fell forwards before hitting the ground Joseph appeared in front of her and held out his arm in order to break her fall.

"Time to go." he said with an uncompromising tone in his voice.

* * *

Rising to his feet, Haans started casually dusting off his uniform from inside the crater that the impact of his fall had made.

A small amount of his blood trickled down by the side of his eye.

 _"What happened there?!"_ he thought to himself while scratching the bottom of his chin.

"AHHHHH, screw thinking about it!" he yelled out loud, propelling himself skyward with Hirenhyaku.

Piercing through the clouds he had just fell through he eventually reached the peak of the mountain where Cain was still standing.

"What took you so long?" Cain said.

Haans started chuckling under his breath, "Sorry about that! Look like this may take a bit longer than usual!" he shouted.

Cain let out a slight sigh, "I will admit yours is a powerful schrift, but against mine it is useless. You should return to the Silbern."

"So what?!" Haans yelled back "I don't care about any of that stuff! All I care about is ripping your damn head off, Cain!"

"You will fail." Cain bluntly replied.

No sooner as he said this when suddenly over a thousand or so small blue pool-like reishi portals formed in the air behind Cain.

"Holy Barrage."

Thousands of spear-shaped holy arrows, twice the size of regular ones, began emerging from the portals and began shaking madly, as if to signify them being ready to be propelled.

"You are an opponent that I do not even need to raise my hands out of my pockets to form my bow in order to defeat."

"Arrogant one aren't ya?!" Haans said laughing ecstatically at the situation.

Ignoring his comment Cain released just one of the many thousand arrow-spears towards Haans. The blue portal it was propelled from instantly began to spark and another arrow-spear began to emerge from it.

While the speed of the projectile was nothing to scoff at, Haans was easily able to swiftly duck underneath the arrow while catching it mid-flight with his bare hand. Twisting back around and with full force he threw the arrow back towards Cain.

"This is yours!" he yelled.

Supplemented with Haans ability, the arrow-spear had gained even more speed than when Cain had fired it and began bolting back towards him.

 _ **"Uneinnehmbare Festung."**_

The arrow-spear crashed into Cain's head and shattered immediately, the only things left behind being ambient blue scraps of reishi.

"Impressive reflexes... but now try doing that against all of them" he said as he propelled every single one of the arrow-spears in a massive barrage.

Haans didn't move from his spot. He knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge them all reactively but he could easily redirect the trajectories of the projectiles that would potentially hit him. All it required was some concentration.

The sea of blue arrow-spears eventually engulfed Haans figure completely and Cain could no longer see him in the vastness of the barrage.

The thousands of arrow-spears eventually pierced the clouds and crashed one after another into the forest. Eventually revealing that Haans was completely unharmed and still standing.

 _"So he was able to change the trajectory even with that many clustered together...? Then the answer is simple."_ Cain thought.

"Being defensive is BORING! Put those toys away!" Haans shouted.

Cain smirked, "I couldn't agree more." he said as all but one of the portals and arrow-spears began dissolving. The final portal moving through the air so it was positioned slightly to the side of Cains head facing towards Haans.

"It's over." Cain stated as he looked at the lone arrow-spear.

 _" **Strömungs Beschleunigung.** "_

Haans stood in place, unbeknownst of what was about to happen. Before he could even blink the lone arrow-spear was in front of his face but had completely stopped before piercing through his skull.

Cain's smirk turned into noticeable shock.

"Wh-" Haans blurted out before seeing the arrow-spear start to slowly dissipate in front of his widened eyes.

"My apologies for being late, but looks like I made it in time." a voice said from behind him.

Haans quickly snapped his head around to see Joseph standing behind him with a young red-headed girl over his shoulder.

Looking at an unconscious Nina and then moving his glance over to Joseph, Cain had a disdainful look on his face.

"Joseph..." Cain muttered under his breath.

Joseph looked at Cain with sorrowful eyes, "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Old friend."

* * *

 **A/N** : **Thanks for reading. Apologies for the ridiculously long delay and relatively short chapter length.**

 **Interested if anyone can guess based on this chapter what exactly Cain's schrift is or possibly even the letter. I'll give you all a clue- it has nothing to do with speed and the letter isn't B. Happy guessing!**


End file.
